Tuesday, August 02, 2005

Sixties lefty turned right wing activist, provocateur, and GOPpolitical consultant is leading a McCarthy-like charge on collegecampuses across the country

Bill Berkowitz - WorkingForChange

07.14.05 - A specter is again haunting U.S. colleges and universities.

At the beginning of the Cold War in the early 1950s, Joseph McCarthy,the infamous Republican Senator from Wisconsin, stalked the politicallandscape hurling reckless charges that hordes of Communists hadinfiltrated the U.S. government before, during and after World War II.

Sen. McCarthy and his band of self-proclaimed patriots also trainedtheir guns on the creative community -- writers, directors and actorsworking in Hollywood and on Broadway -- as well as public schoolteachers and academics on college campuses across the country.

The hysteria these men stirred up through largely unsubstantiatedcharges caused thousands of people to lose their jobs. Some committedsuicide.

Flash forward 50 years: David Horowitz, the 1960s left-wing radicalturned right-wing activist/provocateur and Republican politicalconsultant, has picked up McCarthy's baton. Disguised as an attemptto broaden free speech on campus, Horowitz's Academic Bill of Rights-- which aims to stifle the speech of liberal academics -- has beenmaking the rounds of state houses and college campuses during thepast year or so.

In Florida, State Representative Dennis Baxley (R-Ocala) hasintroduced an Academic Freedom Bill of Rights after he "attended aconservative conference in St. Louis last summer where Horowitz spokeabout academic freedom," the St. Petersburg Times reported.

Baxley's legislation, which in late March passed out of the HouseChoice and Innovation Committee by an 8-to-2 vote (the only twoDemocrats on the committee voted against it), was a broad assault onacademic freedom.

In addition to guaranteeing that students would "not be punished forprofessing beliefs with which their professors disagree," the billwould have advised professors "to teach alternative 'serious academictheories' that may disagree with their personal views."

According to a legislative staff analysis of the bill, students whofelt their views were disrespected in the classroom or thought theywere singled out for "public ridicule" by their professors would havethe right to sue them and the university.

"Despite the state Senate's decision not to consider Baxley's bill, Ihave heard that he hasn't given up and may reintroduce the House billnext session," Susan Greenbaum, the president of the Faculty Senateat the University of South Florida, told IPS.

"Baxley also appealed directly to the state's university presidentsto implement his proposals administratively. As chair of theEducation Council and as a member of the Education AppropriationsCommittee, a very important House committee, Baxley certainly hastheir attention."

"The real test," Greenbaum pointed out, "will come in whether thereis an escalation in student grievances at Florida universities, andwhat happens to those complaints. However, what seems to be lackingin this whole issue is real student dissatisfaction. They havegarnered almost no action among students on these campuses; DavidHorowitz presented a pitiful array of dubious anecdotes when hetestified in Tallahassee."

In addition to Florida, legislators in 13 other states haveintroduced some type of "Academic Freedom" legislation. Californiaand Maine are considering "an academic bill of rights [containing] aneight-point credo designed to increase political diversity in theclassroom."

In early June, the Christian Science Monitor reported that "fourstate universities in Colorado... [had] adopted the principles underlegislative pressure in 2004."

In Minnesota, right-wing state senator Michelle Bachman, a vocalopponent of gay rights, introduced two bills modeled on Horowitz'scomplaints, one targeted at state colleges and universities and oneat state high schools.

Horowitz, who operates a number of projects -- including the onlinemagazine Frontpagemag.com -- out of the well-funded offices of hisLos Angeles, California-based Center for the Study of PopularCulture, set up Students for Academic Freedom in 2003 to do the gruntwork. Since then, the Washington-based outfit has been making headwayon college campuses across the nation.

Students for Academic Freedom is not only involved with lobbyingstate legislatures; on some campuses, they and similarly mindedgroups have launched an all-out assault on liberal professors, usingclassic McCarthyite tactics.

"No teacher... shall advocate or teach communism with the intent toindoctrinate, inculcate in the mind of any pupil a preference forcommunism." Such "advocacy," the statute says, means teaching "forthe purpose of undermining patriotism for, and the belief in, thegovernment of the United States and of this state."

Claiming responsibility for the action, SRJC Republicans issued apress release stating that they "did this because we believe certaininstructors at SRJC are in violation of California state law."

At the same time, a news release with the headline "Operation 'RedScare,'" appeared on the website of California College Republicans.In McCarthyite cant, the organization's chair, Michael Davidson, toldreporter John Gorenfeld "a lot of the college professors areleftovers from the Seventies -- and Communist sympathizers."

Meanwhile, in Florida, Horowitz's local partner, Rep. Dennis Baxley,appears to see himself as a modern-day Daniel fighting the lions ofliberal academia. During the debate over his legislation, Baxleyclaimed he was called a McCarthyist by "leftist critics [who]ridicule me for daring to stand up for students and faculty."

Then, similar to a tactic used by Sen. Joseph McCarthy himself,Baxley claimed that he "had a list of students who were discriminatedagainst by professors," but, the St. Petersburg Times reported, he"refused to reveal names because he felt they would be persecuted."

Horowitz's efforts at campuses across the country, and Rep. Baxley'swork in Florida "represents an inversion of the original intent ofacademic freedom, which is to protect the right of professors toexpress controversial ideas without fear of retaliation," SusanGreenbaum maintains.

"This protection is designed to shield free inquiry and encourageinnovation. It enables the creation of new knowledge and secures thebasis to challenge old ideas," she continued.

"In Baxley's bill -- which is really the Horowitz bill -- studentsare customers, whose tastes and prejudices must be accommodated.Professors are likened to vendors who must take care not to offend ordisturb those who have come to purchase their wares."

"It's like the Wal-Mart model: Maybe they can import holographicimages of professors made in China, attractive classroom automatonswho can be programmed to present marketable and politicallyacceptable material," she said dryly.

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